PR done wrong?

Tiger Woods in a one-car accident at his neighbor's lawn on friday (US time) 2.25am with his 2009 Cadillac Escalade. He was found to be unconscious for 5 minute after his wife came out of the house with a golf club braking the rear window to extricate him. No alcohol was involved. He was sent to the nearby hospital.

It's been more than 36 hours already since this happened and Tiger Woods has not come out with a press conference to address the media. The media needs explanation, for the sake of its obvious interested readers; people want to know of a no.1 gold whiz in the world's twist of life.

If you take more than 36 hours to come out to explain this potentially damaging scene to your reputation, your reputation might have been damaged already. Cause it shows you are hesitating to explain what happen to the curious people. If you're hesitating, you have something to hide. If you have something to hide, it's most likely a bad thing.

After 36 hours people would want to know what bad thing that Tiger Woods has? Very tempting ...

Handphone Pet-Peeve

Iphone 3GS was launched about 3 months ago, and the anticipation was huge, pre-orders totally outpaced the availabilities. People who pre-ordered a couple of month before launch, the lucky few who got the info, unlike others who depends on mass marketing, will almost secretly make their booking like a child waiting for their chocolate ice-cream being scooped from the isle slooooowly.

Then on the launch day, people who book on that day itself will have to make RM200 deposit and wait for 1 month for the small campact box of Iphone.

3months later, you asked the same question to the sales assistants they gave you the same off-repeated line and muted stare that 1 month waiting period is required. I must admit I have a pathological problem, I am compulsive and making me wait just kills my interest. I left the store saying "too bad Apple!". (they would of course reply with "well majority still love me" :( )

Then I went to the Celcom store and wanted a Blackberry Curve. Loved it, all features are cool, just that the screen is much smaller than the Iphone of even the Nokia smartphone I friend has at RM1200. I wanted it. Then came the bombshell; I have to wait and come back again in 5 days. Because I am using Maxis, they will have to change my telco to Celcom and it would take up to 5 days!!!

Imagine how many business opportunities lost from these peeving issues.

Yes, many do not mind, how many do you think like me would mind? HOw big do you think this group is? Opportunities for someone?

SWOT Yourself

SWOT is the common marketing tools used by every marketer and small business owners. Many a times we see businesses never do SWOT analysis let alone analyze themselves.

SWOT is such a powerful tool that when you use it on your business, you know just what to do next, how to position yourself, how to attack and how to defend, and most important of all in this entrepreneurial world we live in, how to develop a market.

Likewise, when you look at yourself in SWOT term, you know who you are, and could easily determine what's your life's destiny. Like Sun Tzu said "know yourself, know your enemy, 1000 battles, 1000 victories"

Responsible Recall of Toyota Cars, But...

Toyota on Wednesday, Nov 25, said it will recall about 3.8million cars in America, to replace the accelerator pedals because it was found to have cause a slew of fatal accidents due to the pedals being stuck in the floor mats. The models affected are Camry, Avalon sedans, Prius hybrid, Tacoma, Tundra pickup trucks, Lexus (IS250, IS350 and ES350).

They might even recall cars back in Japan.

This is the hallmark of a good brand, a company who place customer first, in both satisfaction and their ultimate safety. Toyota has always been the case study of trusted global brand.

Question: Does this floor mat flaw also occur in Toyota cars in Malaysia? Motor Trader only post an article on Yaris, which it said does not need to be recalled as it was in Thailand instead of Japan or France. Toyota Malaysia homepage does not highlight anything of the recall.

Is UMWT doing anything to alleviate this obvious concern? Wouldn't it make sense to take steps in advance to address this obvious queries from Toyota users? Why is it there's no global coordination to cascade the communication?

Mercedez Vito

Everyone knows the marque with the 3-point star in a circle denotes class and luxury. Rarely do we realize that this company with this marque makes commercial vehicles as well, like this Mercedez Vito which I saw last night.

It made me wonder, if a C-200 cost RM238,888, wouldn't the bigger vehicle like the van above cost even more. After all, the bigger they are the more raw materials needed, moreover we do not see many of such vehicle, making harder economy of scale.

But it's not the case, according to motortrader.com.my a standard Vito only cost RM217,888 for normal spec(exclu road tax, insurance and registration fee), more premium spec with would fetch up to RM348,888 (exclu road tax, insurance and registration fee).

How is it possible? Is the pricing by Mercedez rely on margin or price positioning? Could it be that Mercedez gain a huge profit from its luxury car by positioning the C-class at the RM200k range assuming they earn a decent margin for the Vito?

Gearing or Listing?

If you need 1million dollars to expand your business, do you get it listed? or do you borrow money from bank?

Financial and Management Accounting seems to suggest the latter as compared to one company which gets as much share in the loan amount, you will have bigger earning per share in good times and average times. In bad times, the company without the loan will trump the company who pays annual interest rate.

I think as a stakeholder I prefer the company with low gearing. It such a waste that money has to paid on such unnecessary manner like interest rate when you can transfer the earning to share capital or pass on the earnings as dividend. I might have diluted share, but I am willing to pay extra to buy extra share of a company I believe in.

Interbrand Best Global Brand

Annual offering of brand ranking by brand consultancy Interbrand has reached its 8th year. Coca Cola stands at the top and Public Bank takes the helm for Malaysia for the first time.

According to the methodology, brand value is calculated by looking 1. sales revenue generated minue taxes, capital costs and operating costs, 2. exclusive revenue earned by the brand, and 3. qualitative brands strength score looking at several subjective measures like market leadership, trend, diversification, stability and protection, Coca Cola worth USD68bil, while Public Bank worth USD1.9bil.

If you compare this to the revenue generated in the year 2008, Coca Cola earned USD32 bil, while Public Bank earns USD3bil. For every dollar value of Coca Cola's brand it earn USD0.5, while for Public every dollar earn them USD1.6.

It does look like Public Bank make the most out of their brand than Coca Cola.

My Mart View Point

Welcome to my first business blog. Here I will share with you my view point on marketing and possibly other business-related matter from my humble opinion. Do leave comments for me to improve myself, and hopefully all of us benefit from this blog. :) Enjoy